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MB. COLMAN'S ORATION, 



JULir 4, lezs. 



.•irz-fr^rff/^fy 



AN 



ORATION 



DELIVERED IN SALEM, JULY 4, 1826, 



AT THE REQUEST OF THE TOWN, 



OXr THE COMPZ.STZOIT OF A UAItT CENTVIIV 



SINCE THE 



DECLARATIOlk OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. 



BY HENRY COLMAN. 



Published at the request of the Committee of Arrangements. 



SALEM: 

PRINTED BY WARWICK PALFRAY, JTfN. 
1826. 






^^t ^ I 



H 



ORATION. 



FELLOW- CITIZENS, 

It is with unfeigned diffidence and a perfect 
reliance upon your candor, that I appear on this occa- 
sion to speak of the origin, the conduct, and the results 
of the great event, which this day commemorates. 

There is a wonderful sublimity in nature ; but there 
is a moral sublimity in human history still more affect- 
ing. The lofty mountain, pillaring the arch of heaven ; 
the majestic river, bursting from the unsearched forest, 
and traversing a continent in its resistless march ; the 
boundless ocean, swelling and frowning in its anger ; 
the volcano, shooting up its flames upon the darkness 
of midnight, and pouring down its sides its torrents 
of liquid fire; the immeasurable expanse of heaven, 
peopled with worlds, that no imagination can number, 
are objects which overwhelm the mind. 

There is a moral sublimity which surpasses this» 
The fearless navigator, setting out upon an untried 



ocean for the discovery of new worlds; the hero, 
pressing forward to lead the forlorn hope ; the martyr 
at the stake, pouring out his prayers of forgiveness for 
his murderers, and lifting up his praises to God, while 
the flames are blazing around him ; and the patriot, 
sensitive only to the honor, and proffering his life for 
the service of his country, swell the heart with emo- 
tions of a higher character. 

This day commemorates an event, which combines 
the highest attributes of what is sublime in moral con- 
duct. It will be cherished by every philanthropist 
and every grateful American in devout remembrance. 
There stands the simple and affecting memorial of this 
great event, upborne by the same hands which sus- 
tained it in that trying period ; " WE APPEAL TO 
HEAVEN."* 

The Declaration of American Independence is an 
event not always represented in its true character. It 
was not the mere ebullition of passion, the kindling of 
those fires in the human breast, which require only to 
be moved to become inflamed. It was too serious an 
act to be charged to the account of passion. Nor was 
it a mere paroxysm or struggle of men driven to des- 
peration, who rise in their frenzy to break their chains 
over the heads of their oppressors. There were indeed 
tyranny and oppression ; yet they were not so exorbi- 
tant, but that many wise and good men, many true 
friends to their country, considered the measures of 
the British Government towards her Colonies as mat • 

♦ Alluding to the inscription on the revolutionary banner, borne on this 
occasion by some of the eoldiers of the American Army. 



fers of perfect right on her part ; and maintained that 
no evils existed on the other side, which a peaceftd ne- 
gotiation might not remedy. It was not the setting 
up of some new theory of poHtical rights ; a mere 
illusion of the imagination, by which whole com- 
munities have been betrayed, like a meteor, that se- 
duces the benighted traveller. The men of that 
period were not easily led astray by their imagina- 
tions. The interests at stake were much too im- 
portant for them to trust themselves upon any doubt- 
ful speculations. They had not then to learn the 
principles of civil liberty. Their ancestors, who plant- 
ed themselves in this wild land, brought with them, 
and transmitted as an heir-loom to their descendants, 
a spirit of freedom as healthy andelastick as the air of 
the ocean, which bore these pilgrims upon its waves. 
The Declaration of Independence was founded in no 
mercenary, ambitious, or sordid calculation ; stirred 
up by no criminal passion nor resentment, by no views 
of aggrandizement, no wanton rebellion against au- 
thority. It was a measure originating in motives of 
duty. It was the fearless avowal of the first princi- 
ples of political liberty. It was a magnanimous as- 
sumption of the right of self-government. It was a 
determination to be free, made in the most deliberate 
manner ; and from purposes as disinterested as any by 
which human nature is ever actuated. It was not 
more actual oppression under which they suffered, 
than a wise forecast of oppression to which they were 
exposed ; and against which they resolved to close the 
door as its foot first touched the threshold. It was 
taking a stand in vindication of rights and liberties, 
which are dear to man : but the last, which an abso- 



lute government consents to yield ; and for objects ot 
public concern for which no sacrifice can be too great. 
It was made in an hour of extreme peril ; under cir- 
cumstances most inauspicious to their success ; by 
men, who felt that on this measure every thing was 
put at hazard ; but upon whose minds fear never cast 
its shadow ; who saw that they were then kindling a 
fire in which they themselves might be consumed, and 
from which they could not come out unhurt ; but who 
thought little of their own personal safety, if Only their 
purposes might be accomplished. These purposes 
were accomplished. The expense was great ; the en- 
terprise arduous ; but the objects were fully attained, 
and the pledge completely redeemed. 

II. I shall not tax your forbearance by enlarging 
on the conduct of that war. Every child is familiar 
with its history. There are those, who hear me, who 
can say they were a part of it ; here and there a vet- 
eran of the revolution is seen like a straggling tree, 
which the storms of half a century have not overturn- 
ed, to show the noble growth of those times. On the 
part of the Americans, the war was prosecuted in a 
manner consistent with its just purposes. It was a 
war, whose highest honor did not consist in its success ; 
nor in the bravery and address with which it was con- 
ducted ; but above all, in the purity of principle in 
which it originated, and which regulated its close and 
its consequences ; a purity of principle, which shone 
with a brightness proportioned to the exigencies of the 
occasion. I am unwilling to speak of the conduct of 
the parent country when standmg in the relation of an 
enemy, because it would be matter of regret, if any 



unkind emotions should disturb the satisfactions of this 
day. Individual and national resentments are unwor- 
thy of generous minds. But it would be ungrateful to 
pass over the conduct of our own countrymen ; or to 
fail to hold them up as an example to their posterity 
and the world. 

Through an alternation of extraordinary successes 
and defeats, amidst severe privations and hardships, 
under losses and disasters, which would have over- 
whelmed ordinary minds, they persevered with an un- 
wavering courage. The soldiers of that period were 
ijien to whom war was an unaccustomed employment; 
who were summoned from the peaceful arts and pur- 
isuits of life ; and who took up arms not with the spirit 
of mercenaries ; but with the determination of men, 
who felt that the cause in which they contended, was 
the cause of human rights ; and they for whom they 
contended were their parents, their wives, and their 
children. As we have said, on the part of the Ameri- 
cans the conduct of the war corresponded to the views 
with which it was undertaken. It was with them a 
war unstained by crime. It was not exasperated nor 
dishonored, by the cruelties, rapine, and treachery, 
which usually mark the progress of armies. When 
independence was achieved, these citizen soldiers, who 
at that moment had the liberties of the country within 
their grasp, and were tempted to seize them by the 
most seductive motives, which ordinarily address them- 
selves to the minds of men, presented an example of 
moderation which has never been surpassed. Having 
accomplished their great objects, they promptly laid 
down their arms ; and though unrewarded and penny- 
less, they returned quietly to their homes. They left 



8 

the field of bitter conflict, satisfied with the compensa- 
tion, which none but men of their character know how 
to appretiate, the vindication of their country's rights, 
the security of her independence, and the prospect of 
her happiness. 

The world has never seen a brighter example of 
magnanimity than was given under these circumstances 
by the leader of the revolutionary army. I would not 
presume to detract from the merits of this matchless 
man, whose fame is imperishable, and can no more be 
tarnished by any current opinions of the present day, 
than the light of the sun can be extinguished by any 
passing cloud, which should perchance intercept him 
from our sight ; but it would be a dishonor to the mem- 
ory of Washington, to do injustice to the brave men 
associated with him. Washington was himself but a 
sample of the heroes of the revolution ; and while all 
are prompt to accord to him the honor of being first 
among them, it is no derogation from his merit to say 
that he was first among equals. The leaders in this 
struggle, the founders of our Republick, were men of 
the highest cast of character. Nobler spirits, braver, 
more generous, more disinterested men, shed their lus- 
tre upon no portion of human history. Actuated by 
a pure patriotism, and guided by principles of duty, 
they went boldly on through scenes of the darkest trial 
and the severest service, until Heaven crowned their 
efforts with complete success. 

Youthful Americans ! What an honor and privilege 
to be able to say of such men, ' they were our fathers ;' 
and who, a year since, witnessed the affecting specta- 



9 

cle, and was not conscious of emotions unknown be- 
fore, when he saw the fragments of this band of he^. 
roes, crippled with wounds and blanched by the frost 
of years, listening to the tale of their country's glory- 
in strains of Roman eloquence, where they had read 
the tale of their country's wrongs in letters of fire, or 
heard it in the thunders of war; and in the unclouded 
prospect of her prosperity, now poured forth their tears^ 
of exultation in the same field, where in vindication of 
her rights they had poured out their blood.* 

The brave men of the revolution, were men who 
feared God, but knew no other fear. Actuated by a 
high sense of duty, they rested upon the approbation 
of their own hearts as an ample reward for their toils. 
They were worthy of the pilgrims from whom they 
claimed their origin ; of those men to whose pre-emi- 
nent virtue the highest tribute which we can render, is 
not undeserved. Brave and pious men ! who saw the 
hand of God, beckoning them as he did the ancient 
people of Israel, out of a land of captivity ; and who 
did not hesitate to follow the impulse, though it open- 
ed a passage through a sea of blood. They knew that 
" God could provide for them a table In the wilder- 
ness ;" and when they were cast with their wives and 
children defenceless upon this savage shore, they felt 
neither repining nor dismay ; since here at least they 
had obtained the great object which they sought, their 
religious liberty ; and here, with no other temple than 
the broad expanse, and no other altar than the rocks of 
the desert, they were free to worship God according 
to the unfettered dictates of conscience. They were 

* Alluding to the commemoration of the Battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1825, 



10 

men born for their times ; and capable of accomplish- 
ing any enterprise, which their religious convictions 
approved. 

III. Such are the characteristic traits of the history 
of our revolution. Let us glance in the last place at 
its results. It is fifty years this day, perhaps this hour, 
since the great act was performed, which gave birth 
to our nation. No event more noble adorns the an- 
nals of societ3^ An unprotected assembly of delegates 
from a ^ew feeble and disjointed Colonies, deliberately 
asserting in their full extent the highest rights which 
man in his social state can claim ; pledging for their 
support their fortunes, their lives, and, what is dearer 
to such men, their honor ; cutting asunder at a single 
blow the ties which bound them to the country of their 
fathers' sepulchres ; standing up in defiance of the 
most po^^ erful empire, which then swayed a sceptre on 
the globe ; in the midst of a darkness most intense, 
and under the bursting of a storm, which threatened to 
crush them by its violence, calmly laying the corner- 
stone of a fabric of civil liberty, whose just and beau- 
tiful proportions, and whose magnificent elevation 
seemed then present to their minds, constitute a scene 
in human history, to which poetry, painting and elo- 
quence in their combined power can do only partial 
justice ; and which an exalted mind must contemplate 
with an enthusiastic admiration. 

Of a country thus interesting in its origin and for its 
singular purity, disinterestedness, and courage, more 
romantic tlian that of the fabled nations of antiquity, 
the successful progress has been scarcely less extraordi- 



11 

nary. No pages of political history are more brilliant 
than those which pourtray her gradual ascent, from her 
first glimmering above the horizon to her present noon- 
day glory. We cannot say that her progress has been 
unclouded. But the interruptions of her prosperity, 
incidental to every thing human, have served only to 
make us more sensible to her blessings, as the damps 
and darkness of night teach us how to value the warmth 
and light of day. The evils, which she has suffered, 
have not been unaccompanied with the most valuable 
compensations. 

I am aware of the extreme and bitter diversity of 
opinion which prevailed among her best citizens in re- 
gard to the recent war, But as at this distance of time 
we can view the subject calmly, and weigh its merits 
with justice, candid minds, whatever may be their 
views of its ex})ediency or management, will find it dif 
ficult to doubt that the motives in which it originated 
were patriotic. In a case where those persons, who 
themselves decided the question of war, in common 
with the rest of their countrymen, put every thing at 
hazard ; assumed its entire responsibility ; and were ex- 
posed alike to all its perils and calamities ; it is a severe 
judgment that will ascribe to them purposes purely of 
a mercenary, ambitious, or criminal character. The 
questions at issue upon the contest were of the last im- 
portance. The rights, which the country claimed for 
itself, were such as it should never surrender, while it 
presumes to call itself independent. By what means 
they are to be secured or sought, I submit to those, to 
whose province such decisions belong. Disastrous as 
were many of the events of that war, it exhibited ex- 



12 

auiples of valor, magnanimity and patriotic devotion, 
which would do honor to the best days of the republic ; 
and unsuccessful as it may be deemed by any in the at- 
tainment of its avowed objects, the country came out 
of it, bringing new trophies of an illustrious heroism, 
and of a devotion to what many might reasonably 
deem the cause of liberty and right, worthy of those 
who hold alliance to the heroes of the revolution. 
These clouds have passed away. These calamities 
have served to impress us more deeply with the value 
of peace, and inspired increased confidence in a form 
of government, which has thus been proved competent 
to sustain itself amidst trials to which it has often been 
pronounced unequal. We stand to-day upon elevated 
ground ; and may look back upon the course we have 
come, with honest pride and satisfaction. 

Every man feels that the felicity of our country is 
most extraordinary. It would be vain to attempt to 
enumerate its multiplied and wide-spread blessings ; 
but we may confidently demand of any frank and in- 
telligent mind, under what evil of a public or social na- 
ture do we labor ; or of what good, ordinarily pertain- 
ing to the most favored condition of human society, are 
we destitute ? None can be pointed out. It may be 
asked if we design to describe the situation of our 
country as perfect. Perfection is applicable to nothing 
human. From a country as yet in the greenness of 
youth, are not to be expected the advances of ripened 
years. It would be presumption to compare a com- 
munity in its childhood, with countries who have 
reached the period of mature age ; our simple and 
humble institutions, with the rich, magnificent, and 



13 

moss-covered establishments of the old world ; the at- 
tainments of a people, of necessity devoted to the pui- 
suits of active life, and dependant on their daily exer- 
tions for their daily subsistence, with those of coun- 
tries where the division of labor is perfect ; where 
every facility and encouragement is given to learning ; 
and where with all the advantages of leisure, compe- 
tence, and patronage, men are trained to the exclusive 
pursuit of literature, the fine arts, the mechanic arts, 
or of intellectual or political philosophy. But as it 
respects the means of subsistence and the comforts of 
life, the security of person and property, the efiicient 
and prompt administration of justice, the attainment 
of the just rewards of honorable exertion, the means 
of improving our condition, the general advantages of 
education, the blessings of religious institutions, the 
extent of civil and religious liberty, a brighter group 
of privileges, a fairer picture of social prosperity, has 
never risen before the delighted imagination of the 
patriot and philanthropist. 

But I should be unjust to the occasion, if I failed to 
dwell upon those peculiar circumstances in our politi- 
cal condition, which mark decisively the attainment 
of the great objects of the first settlement of the coun- 
try, and the revolution which we commemorate. I 
refer particularly to the civil and religious liberty 
which are enjoyed by us ; blessings, which in the same 
measure have fallen to the lot of no nation ; blessings, 
for the one of which our fathers boldly met the perils 
of the wilderness ; and for the other, the brave men of 
a later period launched forth upon the turbid sea of 
revolution and war. 



14 

What they sought they found. Under the blessing 
of God, their piety and valor have transmitted to us 
their children this rich inheritance. We, who have 
been trained up in the undisturbed possession of these 
blessings, can very imperfectly estimate their value. 
We may learn how they valued th^m, who laboring 
under their privation or infringement, felt that for their 
possession and security no labor was great and no sac- 
rifice considerable. One of the earliest and strongest 
appetites of the human soul is after God ; and an in- 
telligent, feeling, and pious man, w^ill yield no privi- 
lege with greater reluctance, than the freedom of recog- 
nising his relation to God, and of performing the ser- 
vices consonant to that relation according to the un- 
controled dictates of his own mind-. 

Civil liberty is next in value to religious liberty. 
Personal freedom, freedom of speech and of action, as 
far as no encroachment is made upon the peace and 
freedom of others, the security of property, the peace- 
able enjoyment of the fruits of honest labor and en- 
terprise, and a fre^ choice in the appointment of those 
to whom the necessary duties of legislation and gov- 
ernment shall be entrusted, are the greatest goods 
which man can ask in his social state. The enjoy- 
ment of these blessings among us perhaps approxi- 
mates as nearly to perfection as is compatible with the 
human condition. 

There is one circumstance in our social prosperity 
too prominent to be overlooked, because it was made 
by our ancestors the basis of our political institutions. 
It is that the whole form of civil socictv amonir us re- 



15 

cognises the natural equality of mankind; and ad- 
mits of none of those artificial distinctions of rank, 
or power, which are held in other countries at the ex- 
pense of the many for the gain of a few. 

One of the first positions assumed in the immortal 
Declaration, which has this day been read, is " that all 
men are created equal; that they are endowed by their 
Creator with certain unalienable rights ; that among 
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." 
Into whatever discredit some of the sanguinary events 
of the French Revolution may have brought the abused 
doctrines of liberty and equality, it becomes every true 
American to hold to them with his life in their broadest 
extent. They are sounds which should ever be melo- 
dious to his ear ; aiKl which can awaken in his heart 
only responsive pulsations. They are principles bold- 
ly asserted by the brave men of the revolution ; and the 
men not less brave, who preceded them ; principles, 
which when an American citizen denies, he ceases to 
hold kindred with those imperishable names from 
whom he claims descent ; and is unworthy to tread 
the free soil, which gave him birth. 

An American can look upon the aristocratic dis- 
tinctions of the European governments, with all their 
vain assumptions of ecclesiastical and royal legitimacy, 
in no other light than as unnatural and pernicious. To 
an independent mind, accustomed from infancy to 
breathe the bracing air of freedom, they must be intol- 
erable. The happiest community doubtless is that 
where men are as nearly as possible on a level ; where 
the poor man's rights and happiness and liberty and 



16 

property are as secure, as if entrenched by the strongest 
bulwarks of political rank or power or wealth. That 
condition of society is of all others to be chosen in 
which, as among us, men become what they choose to 
make themselves ; in w^hich elevation and authority 
rest upon no other basis than the benefit and free choice 
of the governed ; in which they who rule, equally 
with them who are ruled, are amenable to their own 
statutes ; and the highest distinctions in the community 
are offered to every citizen, without other discrimina- 
tion than as the honorable reward of virtue and talents. 
Whatever tends in any other respect than as virtue and 
talents may do it to exalt one, tends in the same de- 
gree to depress another portion of the community. 
Whatever makes men feel that they are in any respect 
degraded, is likely to create a servile tem])er, which 
chills any strong desire of intellectual or moral excel- 
lence; or produces a mortified state of mind, which 
withdraws some of the most powerful encouragements 
to good conduct. In our ow n happy condition we see 
a perfect experiment of the principles of our fathers ; 
and to the credit of their wisdom and philanthropy 
these principles have proved a great security of public 
raoials, an efficient instrument of public virtue, and 
powerful means of elevating the intellectual and politi- 
cal character of our community. 

Such are the prominent features in the prosperity of 
our country. Such is the successful result of the glo- 
rious enterprise, which we celebrate. I might speak 
of her immense resources, her rapid progress in popu- 
lation, her brilliant rising in the arts of life, her quick 
and forward march in civilization and internal im- 



17 

provements, her extended means of education, liei' ad- 
vancing intelligence, her agricultural riches, her inge- 
nious and increasing manufactures, her immense ex- 
ports, her adventurous commerce, which, emulating 
the birds of the air in their unrestricted migrations, 
leaves no corner of the globe unvisited. Instead of a 
representation of fiftj-five delegates, who signed the 
Declaration of Independence, she numbers a Congress 
of hundreds. Instead of a federation of thirteen colo- 
nies, the insignia of twenty four large and thriving re- 
publics glitter in the constellation of her spangled 
banner. A population of three millions is quadrupled ; 
and in place of a limited and timid commerce, her 
ships spread their wings on every sea, and she holds a 
maritime rank, second only to one nation on the globe. 
From the river St. Croix, she stretches onward to 
Mexico ; from the Atlantic, she extends her sceptre 
to the Pacific. She follows the sun in his bright 
track over her territory nearly the journey of a day, 
until she finds where he hides himself in the waves of 
the western ocean. The summits of the Alleghanies 
have long* since been passed ; and the busy and moving 
multitudes beyond them are scarcely less numerous 
than those, which inhabit the hither side. The cliffs 
of the Rocky Mountains present no barrier to the irre- 
sistible tide of emigration. New swarms from the 
parent hives are every where scattering themselves 
over this vast territory, and causing the mountains and 
valleys to resound with the hum of industry and thrift. 
The forests of the great western world are falling in 
the progress of cultivation ; and the beaten track of 
civilized man is already extended from one ocean to 
the other. The brilliant triumphs of art and genius^ 
3 



18 

of uuslackening activity and heroic enterprise, are ev- 
ery where conspicuous. The shores of her great in- 
land seas are tributary to the cities oji her eastern bor- 
ders ; and the Lake of the Woods is compelled to 
mingle its waters with the Atlantic's tides. Villages 
and towns, with all the improvements of old commu- 
nities, spring up as it were by magic ; the spires of 
their churches are seen rising out from among the trees 
of the forest ; and the dark places of the tangled wil- 
derness, which have resounded only with the bowlings 
of wild beasts, or the war-whoop of men more savage, 
catch the joyful rays from their glittering vanes, and 
become vocal with the praises of the true God. 

Eloquence and poetry in their boldest visions have 
imagined nothing more wonderful or more beautiful 
than the progress of our country. Yet after all, her 
truest glory and prosperity are her free institutions ! 
Without these her other blessings would be compara- 
tively of small value. Give us a soil as sterile and a 
climate as inhospitable as that of the polar regions ; 
give us poverty and cold and hunger ; give us but a 
couch of leaves for our bed and a canopy of boughs for 
our shelter ; and our fathers would have said, if we 
have free institutions, we have enough. In pursuit of 
the freedom, which has descended to us, they rode the 
stormy billows of the ocean without alarm ; and here 
in the wilderness, with no covering but the clear 
heavens, and no pillow but the drifts of winter, they 
lifted up their hearts in thanksgiving to God ; and ask- 
ed no more of him than the liberty, which he had 
taught them to hold as their birth-right. Be it worn 



19 

always as the motto of the children of such men, 
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." 

I ask leave to repeat it ; we stand to-day upon ele- 
vated ground, and a wide prospect stretches itself out 
before us. We look backwards, and tracing the pro- 
gress ol half a century, we see our country rising from 
humble beginnings to an extent of empire, which no 
imagination could at that period have dared to antici- 
pate. In the blessings of her present condition we see 
an ample reward for the toils and sacrifices of the men, 
whose sagacity laid, and whose blood cemented the 
foundations of her felicity. We extend our views for- 
ward ; but we attempt in vain to measure the magnifi- 
cent destiny to which she seems advancing. 

The history of the last half century in the old world 
has been traced in the deepest characters of blood and 
misery. The European continent presents a picture 
of fields, whitened with the bones of millions of her 
slaughtered sons ; of thrones overturned, and thrones 
built up from the fragments of these fallen dominions; 
and of terrific revolutions, which, after an expense of 
human life and suffering, that language is inadequate 
to describe, have often terminated not in the meliora- 
tion of the condition of an oppressed people ; but in the 
restoration and strengthening of time-worn and galling 
institutions. After all her bleeding trials, and in a pe- 
riod of the world more liberal and enlightened than 
any which has preceded it, she has been compelled to 
witness in silence the- combination of her sovereigns 
under the abused name of religion, to deny to their 
subjects the first principles of political freedom : to ex- 



20 

tinguish the lights of education ; and to enforce by the 
sword, doctrines of political succession and power wor- 
thy only of the dark ages. 

From a remote corner of Europe, the bright spot 
where civil Fiberty had birth on earth, and which to 
the classical imagination is encircled with the most 
brilliant associations, the convulsive shrieks of men 
struggling for existence against an iron despotism, 
have gone up to Heaven with the flames of their pil- 
laged cities. There in God's mercy may they at last 
be heard and answered. May they be followed by a 
voice of triumph and glory, which shall make the op- 
pressors of mankind turn pale, and feel that the world 
was not made for them alone. May this abused and 
suffering people, whose courage and sacrifices have 
been worthy of the best days of their ancient renown, 
at last see every vestioe of tyranny obliterated from 
the hallowed soil of their country. 

A brighter prospect presents itself upon our own 
continent. The light of American freedom begins to 
be reflected from the summits of the Andes ; and their 
luxuriant valleys are vocal with the kindred and rap- 
turous sounds of liberty and Washington. Sister 
Republics in a brilliant group are rising to meet us in 
the Southern Hemisphere ; are seeking to learn of us 
the principles of civil liberty ; and with an enthusiasm 
that shrinks from no sacrifice, are emulating our free 
institutions. Every generous heart beats responsive 
to their desires, and pours out its prayers in their be- 
half. In ages of freedom may they find at last some 
compensation for the oppression and degradation and 



21 

misery, to which an insatiable tyranny and a IjidooUs- 
superstition has so long subjected them. 

What remains then, but that I call upon every son 
and daug;hter of this happy republic, to value his bless- 
ings as he ought, and to perform the grateful duties 
which these blessings impose. To the brave men of 
the revolution we owe a debt, which cannot be cancel- 
led. There still survive to see this day, some to whom 
this day brings associations of a nature, which no 
others can attach to it ; and who are themselves 
living histories of the eventful period of the revolution. 
Venerable and privileged men ! venerable for services 
of patriotism, which it has been the honor of few other 
men to render ; privileged above other men, in that 
you, who were compelled to feel your way in the 
darkest hour of her trials, are permitted now to find 
repose amidst the splendors of her prosperity ; and 
while the light of life with you is declining, you see 
her sun still mounting upwards in its full orbed glory. 
Brave men ! whom we would cherish with the grate- 
ful respect which your noble services claim. The gov- 
ernment of your country has been reluctant in the pe- 
cuniary acknowledgment of the immense debt of ser- 
vice, which she owes you ; and to those, whom the 
hard qualification of poverty has compelled to seek it, 
has dealt out as a pittance of charity a small part of 
what you might claim on the score of justice ; but it is 
your high honor to know that it was not a pecuniary 
compensation, which you sought. There are services 
for which money is a worthless equivalent ; such were 
your services ; and minds capable of the benefactions 
which you have rendered, find the richest compensa- 



22 

lion in the noble consciousness of fulfilled duty ; and 
in the prospect of the good, which you have procured 
for your descendants. Generations far distant in the 
line of time shall learn from your example what good 
men owe to their country and to the world ; and as 
long as courage, disinterestedness and patriotism are 
named among men, the memory of your services shall 
be hallowed by the best aiTections of an admiring pos- 
terity. 

Americans ! citizens of this favored republic ! the 
possessors of such blessings ! the descendants of such 
men ! prove yourselves worthy of the former, by culti- 
vating the virtues of the latter. The Carthagenian 
general brought his child to the altar, to take an oath 
of ceaseless vengeance against the enemies of his coun- 
try ; come you into the presence of your fathers' God 
to make a far better vow of duty to the memory of 
your ancestors ; to the country, which they left as the 
fruit of their toils ; and to the high principles of duty 
on which they laid the broad foundations of its pros- 
perity. Let such vows of duty swell your hearts on 
this joyful occasion, and mingle with your thanksgiv- 
ings to God, who stretched over your fathers the wing 
of his protecting providence. Around our festive 
boards let us pour out our libations with filial piety to 
their memory ; and hold up to the grateful admiration 
of our children a history fragrant with the savor of 
their piety, and illuminated by the splendors of their 
patriotism. Remaining true to their principles and 
virtues, the prosperity of our country shall be secure ; 
and her name shall go down unstained to distant ages. 
She will continue to stand out as a beacon to the op- 



23 

pressed nations of the world. The brilliancy of her 
achievements will send their cheering light into the 
dark places of the earth. The full tide of her glory 
will roll on, until she has taught mankind the most 
valuable of all political lessons ; that justice and honor 
are the foundation of national as well as individual 
happiness and ^ry ; that liberty and equality are the 
natural and inalienable rights of man ; that the only 
ends of civil government are the security, peace, im- 
provement, and happiness of the governed ; that all the 
liberty a g:ood man can desire, is compatible with all 
the security a good man can need ; that the rights of 
conscience are gifts from God, upon which no infringe- 
ment or restraint is ever to be permitted ; and that 
with knowledge and virtue and religious principle, 
mankind are always competent to govern themselves. 

Our earliest and our latest prayers shall go up to 
Heaven for our country. The spirits of her just men 
made perfect in celestial glory, are hovering over her 
brilliant destinies. America! be free, be just, be inde- 
pendent, be happy. America! go forward in the 
march of true glory ; the glory of knowledge and wis- 
dom ; of justice and freedom. May another and yet 
another jubilee find you advancing on the unbroken 
current of political happiness and honor. May liberty, 
the best gift of Heaven to man in his political relations, 
continue to be cherished by you with the warmest de- 
votion ; and should God, in his displeasure for the in- 
gratitude of man, see fit to recal her to her native skies, 
may the last spot which she quits be this favored 
country, where she has accomplished her best, her no- 
blest triumphs. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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